NEWS
For Immediate Release:

Freddie Query Wins PASS South 'Southern Sizzler'; Veteran Beats Jones, Rowe, Lawler, Bradberry, Kittleson, Day & Rogers

CONCORD, NC (May 21, 2006) – Freddie Query is a legend in the Super Late Model world, especially in the South. He’s won at just about every track around the region in just about every type of stock car imaginable. He is the all-time leader in wins at Concord Motorsport Park. He’s a former NASCAR All Pro Series Champion. He’s done it all. And when the competition shows up to the track, he is the driver that everyone seems to want to beat.

    On Sunday afternoon, Query added a Pro All Stars Series South victory to his illustrious list of career accomplishments as he muscled his way into the winners circle during the "Big Dawg Southern Sizzler" at Southern National Raceway Park in Kenly, NC. Query came from the 14th starting spot to take the lead on lap 80. He picked up the $5,000 first-place prize for the 150-lap race.

    "I was being patiently aggressive all day long," said Query. "I didn’t want to be back there (where we started), but everyone was keeping their cars straight and doing well, so it wasn’t too bad. The scary thought was the wrecking happening up front. When you start that far back, you sometimes can’t miss it. Thankfully that didn’t happen and we were able to keep the car going toward the front. You gotta have a lot of luck to do what I did today and I had a lot of luck."

    Query methodically moved his way to the front. By lap 20, he was in the top-10. By lap 40, he was in the top-six. By lap 60, he was in the top-three. On lap 79, he jumped to the inside of leader Travis Kittleson heading into turn three to grab the top spot. When he did, he never looked back.

    "I can’t qualify on these American Racers (tires)," said Query. "I’m not used to them and I can’t get them to go for two laps yet. I had a decent car, though, once the race started going. You have to conserve at this track, but you have to have a good turning racecar, too. You just have to conserve by not sliding the front wheels or the back ones. You can just look at the track and see it is rough. It’s not as bad as Pensacola (Five Flags Speedway) or some others, but it is a cheese-grader. It puts a lot of heat in the tires and they just give up.

    "You have to get up under them (the other drivers) and beat them off of the corner. That is short track racing. There are very few tracks where you can pass someone on the outside. About every track you go to these days, you have to be able to turn up under them and beat them to the flag stand. We were able to do that today."

    Query pulled out to a huge lead at times, but a few late cautions brought the field back to him. Query had to hold off the charge of a young Clay Jones near the conclusion of the 150-lap event.

    Jones, who started fourth, never ran out of the top-five all afternoon long and put pressure on the veteran Query, but his famous number-8 was too much for the youngster, who finished two-seconds back.

    "It’s been a while since we’ve run this (Super Late Model)," said Jones, who missed Saturday’s practice day while he was competing with his Late Model Stock Car in the UARA-Stars Series race just a couple of hours up the road at Orange County Speedway. "It is hard work running two cars. We didn’t have any practice yesterday because we were running the other car. We only had an hour today. So to finish second, that is like a win to us.

    "I burned my tires up about halfway. At the end, I didn’t have anything left. It was just hanging on from there on out."

    Mike Rowe, the winner of the inaugural PASS South race at Hickory Motor Speedway in April, finished third after making the long trip down from Maine once again.

    "That is why I come down here; to beat guys like Freddie Query," said Rowe, a three-time Oxford 250 winner and a regular in PASS North. "Freddie is one of the guys we need to beat down here. He is awesome. I love racing with him and a lot of these other guys. When we can come down south and run with Freddie and the rest of these guys, we are going to. We need to come back down and beat him fair and square. I just love racing with him.

    "I’d rather come down here and run third to these guys than I would win at home. I have a lot of fun racing with these guys and I think they have really good things working with PASS South."

    Ryan Lawler continued his impressive start to his Super Late Model career by finishing fourth in only his third career race in this style of car. And Lawler, who finished fifth in the PASS South race at Hickory, used the new "Lucky Dog" rule to his advantage.


    Lawler spun his car mid-way through Sunday’s 150-lap event and went a lap down in the process. However, Lawler was awarded the "Lucky Dog" on the next caution, since he was the first car one-lap down. That put him on the lead lap and afforded him the opportunity to move from 17th all the way back to fourth by the time the race ended.

    Former NASCAR Southeast Series champion and former Snowball Derby winner Charlie Bradberry made the most of his first career PASS South start. The veteran, who picked up an All American Super Late Model Series win on Friday night in Birmingham (AL), drove all night to get to Kenly late on Saturday. After minimal practice, Bradberry came from 11th to finish 5th.

    Still the "Big Dawg 98.5 Southern Sizzler" belonged to Query. And PASS South is what let him get there.

    "This is what I love to do," added Query. "The car count is good and there is a lot of interest in this series right now. I hope Mike (Rowe) and all of the guys from up North keep coming down. Then, to have a guy like Charlie Bradberry here is awesome. I’m tickled to death he is here today. He is a great racer and this series deserves more guys like him coming in. I hope we get more guys from the South and the North all coming here. I hope this thing really gets strong and turns into a place we can race at for years and years. I’d say they’ve got a pretty good start."

    The next race for the PASS South cars is the "South Carolina Clash" at Florence Motor Speedway on Saturday night, June 10th.

    For more information on the PASS South Series, contact Jeremy Troiano at DSG by calling (704) 455–2051 and be sure to visit the official website of PASS, www.proallstarsseries.com.

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